Nasturtiums

[roseycheeks]

These are my nasturtiums, they are now over a foot tall, can someone tell me how much taller they will get before they bloom?

[rainbowgardener]

Indoors in winter, it is not likely to bloom at all. They are full sun plants and bloom in the summer when the days are very long.

They are annuals and not really worth the effort of trying to overwinter. Even if you manage to keep them alive all winter, they will look really bad, they'll get long and leggy and the plant will be too stressed in the spring to grow well. Best to start new seeds next year. Yours is already looking long and leggy and spindly.

They are easy to start from seed. You can plant the seed directly in the ground once all danger of frost is past or you can start seeds indoors 4-6 wks before your average last frost date.

[ElizabethB]

DITTO RBG. Plant outside in the spring and harvest seeds for the following year.

[rainbowgardener]

Here's how nasturtium looks growing outside in the summer. You can barely see any stems:


http://pantrygardenherbs.com/files/2011 ... l-lp-3.jpg

[Susan W]

I admit, did chuckle, no offense meant. Nasturtiums in summer? A couple of times I have had decent flowering in spring, burnt up in June. They certainly are not an inside flower even with bunches of light. Any more not worth the time and space to mess with them. Sigh.

[rainbowgardener]

Mine grow through the summer, with protection from afternoon sun, and into fall. I never have them in the spring, because they take 40 or more days to bloom from seed and are not very cold hardy.

[imafan26]

Mine will show up around March but be gone by July or look really bad and I pull them out. The seeds drop and they lay dormant until it is time to come up again. I haven't had to plant nasturtiums for a few years now, unless I want different colors. It seems the red and orange once come back every year but the other colors don't.

I would not try them as a winter plant because while they actually like cool weather they do not like rain. On the bright side sort of, nasturtiums are edible. Leaves, seeds, and flowers have a peppery taste. I don't like them people who like the bitter greens like arugula probably will like them. Nasturtium seeds make a good salad dressing, that I have had and I don't mind that at all.

[roseycheeks]

Do you think I could cut these down to a shorter height or toss them? I would really like to see what these will do, I was told that my moonvines would not bloom in the house and I had three blooms! I am not doubting what the fine folks here on this page are telling me, I know that they have had experiences with these plants and they are telling me what they had happen, so I am not ignoring them and are thinking that I have better luck with mine than they did with theirs. I was just wondering if I could. I hate to throw something away that I have grew from seed and watched grow, so if these great people think I should just throw these away I will but I hope someone can suggest just cutting them down to a more believable height. I am always thankful for the advice and help I get on this website, it has helped me quite a bit, and maybe gave me some patience(lol)!

[rainbowgardener]

Actually, I wouldn't cut it back, since all the leaves are at the top. You can let it sprawl though, rather than training it upward. Just put supplemental lighting on it (a lamp just a few inches away) and see what happens. Why not? then you will know. I expect you can keep it alive. I don't think anything you can do will make it bloom out of season with limited light (even a lamp is so much less than full sun outdoors).

[Bobberman]

Great year for my nasturtiums. I have many kinds and have them growing great even in the shade. I mean real shade with no direct sunlight under a hedge next to the rabbit pen. my rabbit loves the leaves and flowers. I eat the flowers and leaves in my salad! I put them in pots and in the ground. I dig them up in the fall and put in pots to keep in my solar green house where they bloom all winter. I like to just add more dirt over the center of them and they will grow much better especially the vining ones ! I pick the seed pods up from the ground and on the plants now for next year.! I plant them everywhere in the garden and they seem to help the ther plants grow better! The ones with green leaves with a white cast are the nicest.

[applestar]

@Bobberman, When you dig them up, how much of the existing vines and foliage do you keep?
What size container do you put a plant in? Have you done this yet this year? (Wondering if I should try digging mine up even though they are really blooming well right NOW, after mediocre performance all season )

I haven't found the right location/technique for growing nasturtiums yet. They seem to take a very long time to reach maturity and start blooming. This year, I lost a lot of them at seedling stage, and these two were the only survivors. The orange flowered one on the left is in a part shade, dry location, and the same red flowered one on the right/bottom was planted in the middle of this bed when the tomatoes were still very small. Between the tomatoes and a very dense overhead canopy of pole and runner beans, it got very dark. The plant crawled out to the edge and then grew along to the side as shown and FINALLY started blooming.

I wonder if nasturtiums could be grown in a hanging pot....?

[Bobberman]

I dig any size up and trans plant but dig way under the roots! I have two plants for 2 years now that are still growing! My greenhouse even went down to 28 this year and they stayed alive. mine seem to do better in part shade to lots of shade! I have both climbing and bush type. I even had them in a big planter with other flowers and they grew over the sides and stayed all summer. I have seeds everywhere and will send some out this year. I also have hundreds of runner bean seeds to give away! I have to start taking pictures to post! The leaves on my plants are really large about twice the size of a silver dollar! Huge flowers and lots of them! I grew several near a fence on the north side and they did poor till the climbing beans up the fence shaded them then they grew much bigger!

[catgrass]

Seeds from existing plants??? Can't happen for me, I eat the flowers too quickly! (LOL) They don't grow well here during late spring or summer. I have some planted now, and if we don't have a freeze, they will last a while.

[imafan26]

I have some nasturtiums sprouting now because of the rain and it is cooler, but it usually won't last unless I use fungicides or we have a dry winter. They can grow in the shade but they bloom better in the sun.

[rainbowgardener]

Rosey - do keep us posted on what you do and what the results are.

One of the differences between your moonflower vine and the nasturtium is that moonflower, while often grown as an annual in cold winter areas, is a tropical perennial, so it was not at the end of its life cycle. Nasturtium is a true annual, with a genetically programmed life span- grow, bloom, set seed, die, all keyed to appropriate seasons. So even if you do keep it alive through the winter, it will be at the end of its life and will not do much after that.

But definitely, try the experiment and find out for yourself.